General Assembly proposes $500,000 cut to legal services funding

Earlier this week, the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Public Safety, Transportation and Environment Subcommittee eliminated $500,000 from the MLSC Fund, clouding an already dire funding dilemma for the organization that funds 38 civil legal services programs across the state (including the largest, Maryland Legal Aid).

“The result of this extraordinary loss in MLSC’s major revenue source is significant funding cuts for Maryland’s legal services providers for FY 2010,” said MLSC executive director Susan Erlichman. “In January, MLSC informed its grantees that all but core operating grants will be eliminated, and funding for core operating grants will be reduced by at least 25 percent beginning July 1, 2009.”

The proposed cut comes on the heels of a projected 70-percent decrease in revenue from the Interest on Lawyer Trust Account program (MLSC’s primary source of funding), due to unprecedented low interest rates. IOLTA revenues generated $6.7 million in 2008 and is projected to barely reach $2 million next year.

“The elimination of $500,000 from the MLSC fund will further erode our ability to fund legal aid programs, and leave thousands of additional Marylanders seeking critically needed assistance with nowhere to turn for help,” Erlichman said.

“Legal aid programs are seeing an ever-increasing number of Marylanders seeking help with foreclosure, eviction, food stamps, unemployment insurance, family matters, and other issues that have been exacerbated as a result of the current economic crisis,” she added. “Restoration of the $500,000 to the MLSC fund is urgently needed.”

Through staff and volunteer lawyers, legal services programs help over 100,000 clients each year with urgent legal problems. “This additional revenue cut would devastate these programs and create scores of Marylanders who would lose jobs, family supports and income because they cannot afford counsel,” said Sharon Goldsmith, executive director of the Pro Bono Resource Center, an MLSC grantee. ” Too many people of limited means already go without any legal guidance with credit, housing, employment, foreclosure, bankruptcy, trusts and estates, special education, domestic violence and other issues. A funding cut would seriously exacerbate these problems and create greater social discord and community instability.”

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Services provided to low-income people include employment (getting illegally denied unemployment benefits and back pay and wages due), housing (preserving affordable housing, stopping illegal evictions from public and subsidized housing, advocating for the correction of substandard housing, preventing homelessness), income maintenance (helping those with disabilities avoid institutionalization, preserving or obtaining public benefits, overcoming denial of public benefits), juvenile (representing abused and neglected children), consumer (preventing foreclosure, helping homeowners bilked by foreclosure rescue scams, correcting credit ratings, stopping dept-collection activity, overcoming illegal or unfair sales contracts, avoiding utility terminations), health (helping sick children and the elderly get medical assistance, helping seniors get Medicaid assistance so they can live in their communities), family (making sure custodial parents don't lose custody of their children, helping abused women obtain custody, divorce and alimony), farmworkers (educating and representing farmworkers regarding their employment rights and educating service providers, government and the public about farmworkers' rights and needs), and education (helping children get special education services to which they are entitled, avoiding illegal or unfair school suspensions and obtaining correct school records).

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Some Stats…

In 2011, Maryland Legal Aid helped 70,000 of our neediest citizens with their civil legal needs at no charge to them. Due to funding limitations, we are able to help only 20 percent of those who are financially eligible for our services.